OBSERVER File Photo Fredonia's Trey Swartz connects with a pitch during a regular season game earlier this season.

Even the cold Western New York weather couldn’t cool down the Fredonia offense on Friday afternoon.

The Fredonia Hillbillies baseball team won its first game of the season, 23-0, over Maple Grove in a CCAA Division 1 West regular season high school baseball game at Fredonia High School.

Fredonia (1-0, 1-0) had its first four games of the season all called off because of the weather. Friday, as chilly as it was, wound up as the season opener for the Hillbillies.

However, Fredonia could not have looked any more ready to play through the first two innings.

Senior pitcher Derrick Walters — a Niagara County Community College commit — started on the mound for Fredonia, and he answered the call by striking out the side in the first inning. All three strikeouts were swinging.

If that wasn’t impressive enough, Fredonia broke the game wide open in the bottom half, in only the first inning of play.

Fredonia’s offense, as excited as the team was to finally get the season going, showed impressive discipline at the plate early in the inning. Seth Schrader led off the inning with a walk, and his teammates followed suit with a walk and a hit-by-pitch to load the bases for returning CCAA Div. 1 MVP Ryan Mroczka. The senior catcher did not chase a pitch outside of the zone and took a bases-loaded walk to score the first run of the Fredonia season.

Alec Schrader drew another walk to give Fredonia a 2-0 lead. Still with no one out, Walters came to the plate with a chance to help his own cause with a few runs of insurance for Fredonia.

Walters sure got the insurance he needed — and then some — with a three-run double to clear the bases. Fredonia had a 5-0 lead before Maple Grove (1-1, 1-1) recorded an out.

Fredonia tallied four more runs before the first frame was complete. The Hillbillies led 9-0 after a three-run double by Trey Swartz, the second bases-clearing double of the very first inning of Fredonia’s season.

“To be honest, we caught a break,” said Fredonia head coach Vince Gullo. “They have two (solid pitchers) and they burned them both out in Wednesday’s league game (against Chautauqua Lake) … It was nice to see really good at-bats for our first time outside.”

Walters worked around a leadoff double in the second inning, along with a one-out walk, by striking out the final two batters of the inning. Both runners were left on base, and Fredonia headed to the bottom of the second inning with an unblemished score.

Fredonia kept the runs coming — and then some — in the bottom of the second inning. A two-run single by Seth Schrader with the bases loaded made the score 12-0 for the Hillbillies. Swartz added an RBI single, and after a walk by Reid Tarnowski, Mroczka finally got his chance to get in on the action, with a two-run double of his own to dead center field. After Swartz and Tarnowski added RBI singles in their second at-bats of the inning, Fredonia led 21-0 after the second inning of play.

“Trey (Swartz) in the two-spot (in the lineup) hit the ball very well,” said Gullo. Swartz finished 4-4 with a walk and six runs batted in.

Walters finished off his outing on the mound by striking out the side in the third inning. He finished with the win after three innings pitched, allowing one hit and one walk. Walters struck out nine batters, to account for all nine outs he recorded on the mound.

“It was a nice start for his senior year,” said Gullo. “He got the opening day start at home and he took full advantage of it. We expect good things from Derrick (Walters).”

Swartz pitched a shutout fourth inning, despite allowing singles to the first two batters of the inning. The final two outs of the inning were strikeouts, with both runners stranded in scoring position. Tarnowski finished off the game by striking out the side in the fifth inning. The newly-implemented “Mercy Rule” called off the remainder of the contest, as Fredonia led by more than ten runs after five innings. The Hillbillies did not have to hit in the bottom of the fifth.

“It was just one of those games where things went our way,” said Gullo. “It was nice to see everyone on the team get two at-bats. Everyone got a chance to get in the game and it’s nice to work out a few kinks.”

Both offensively and on the mound, Fredonia was clearly on another level than Maple Grove on Friday.

“I liked all three pitchers throwing,” added Gullo. “It was nice to see all three have success.”

Still, with such a dominant win in the season opener, Gullo was reserved after the game.

“It’s game one,” said Gullo. “We don’t get too excited or too concerned after one game.”

Maple Grove coach Ryan Lucas declined to comment after the defeat.

Fredonia will play again today, at 11 a.m., hosting Harbor Creek, Pa. in a non-league game.

Twitter: @bradencarmen